Ecobreves – CUBA:: Out in the Sun

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

HAVANA, Jul 7 2003 (IPS) - The government of Cuba plans to use solar energy to provide electricity to 20,000 homes over the next five years, many of them in rural areas that are not connected to the national grid. The use of photovoltaic solar panels in homes is one of the growing applications of solar energy on the island. The potential for solar energy use in Cuba is estimated at 5,000 kilocalories per square meter per day.

Businesses in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, 967 kms from Havana, already use solar energy to dry wood, thus improving the quality of the product and reducing the time spent on preparing the wood.

In Santiago there are seven solar dryers, each with a capacity to process 12 cubic meters of wood in 10 days.